The Alpha’s Claim(2)

Chapter 2

He didn’t put me down until we reached the cabin.

It sat deep in the trees, dark wood and stone, smoke already rising from the chimney like he’d known he wouldn’t be coming back alone. The second he carried me across the threshold the air changed. His scent was everywhere — thick, heavy, soaked into the walls and the furniture and the dark blankets on the wide bed against the far wall. My body reacted before I could stop it. Heat licked low through my stomach. My cock twitched against the wet fabric of my jeans.

Kade felt it. Of course he did.

He set me on my feet just inside the door and stepped back only far enough to look me over. Rain still dripped from his hair. His eyes had not gone back to human.

“Take the clothes off,” he said.

I stared at him. “No.”

“They’re soaked. You’ll freeze. And I want your scent without the river and the mud covering it.” His voice stayed calm, but the order underneath it was unmistakable. “Clothes. Now.”

I clenched my jaw. “I’m not stripping for you.”

He moved again — that same unnatural speed — and suddenly he was right in front of me. One hand braced on the door beside my head. The other caught my chin and forced my face up.

“You walked onto my land smelling like an Omega three days from heat,” he said, quiet and lethal. “You felt the bond the second I touched you. Your body is already softening for me. So you can take the clothes off yourself, or I will do it for you. Choose.”

My pulse slammed against his fingers. I hated how part of me wanted him to follow through. I hated even more that the smart choice was already slipping through my hands.

I shoved his chest. He didn’t move.

“Fine,” I muttered.

I peeled the soaked shirt over my head and dropped it on the floor. The jeans were harder — wet denim clinging to my thighs. I pushed them down along with my briefs and kicked them aside, standing naked in the middle of his cabin while rain still tracked cold lines down my skin.

Kade’s gaze dragged over me slowly. From my face to my throat, down my chest, lower. When his eyes reached my cock — already half-hard against my will — something in his expression went darker.

“Turn around.”

“Kade—”

“Turn. Around.”

I did.

Silence stretched behind me for several long seconds. I heard him inhale. Then his bare feet crossed the wooden floor. Warmth pressed against my back — solid muscle, wet clothes, the hard line of his cock through his jeans. His nose dragged slowly up the side of my neck, scenting me openly now.

A low, broken sound left my throat before I could stop it.

“There,” he murmured against my skin. “That’s the real scent. Sweet. Getting sweeter.” One of his hands settled on my bare stomach, fingers spreading wide, holding me against him. “Your heat is closer than I thought. Two days. Maybe less.”

“I don’t want this,” I said again, weaker than before.

“I know.” His mouth opened against the curve where my neck met my shoulder. Teeth scraped — not biting, not yet — just promising. “But you’re going to take it anyway. Because the bond doesn’t care what you want. And neither do I. Not when what’s mine is standing naked in my den already leaking for me.”

I looked down.

He was right. A thin line of slick had already started to slide down the inside of my thigh. My body was preparing itself whether I agreed or not.

Kade’s hand slid lower. He wrapped his fingers around my cock and stroked once, slow, from base to tip, spreading the wetness that had gathered there. My hips jerked. Another helpless sound slipped out.

“Sensitive already,” he said. “Good.”

He stroked me again, firmer this time, thumb dragging over the head on every upward pull. I braced both hands against the door, forehead pressed to the wood, trying to keep my breathing steady. It didn’t work. Every pass of his fist pulled another broken noise out of me. My legs started to shake.

“Kade—fuck—wait—”

He didn’t wait.

He kept that same relentless rhythm until I was rocking into his fist, slick dripping steadily down my thighs, the wet sound of it filthy in the quiet cabin. His other hand stayed locked on my stomach, holding me in place while he worked me closer and closer to the edge.

“You’re going to come for me,” he said against my ear. “And then I’m going to put you in my bed smelling like it. So every wolf in ten miles knows the Alpha’s mate is home.”

The words tipped me over.

I came hard, spilling over his fist and onto the wooden floor with a broken cry I couldn’t swallow. My knees buckled. Kade held me up easily, still stroking me through it until I was oversensitive and twitching in his grip.

Only then did he let go.

He turned me around, lifted his hand, and licked my release off his fingers while I watched, chest heaving. His eyes never left mine.

“Bed,” he said. “Now.”

I walked on unsteady legs. The mattress dipped under my weight. Kade stripped out of his own wet clothes without hurry, giving me a full view of what I’d felt against my back — thick muscle, dark hair trailing down his stomach, a heavy cock already hard and flushed. He climbed onto the bed after me, caged me in with his body, and dragged his nose along my throat again.

“Sleep,” he ordered quietly. “You’ll need it. When your heat hits, I’m not going to be gentle. And I’m not letting you leave this cabin until I’ve knotted you full and the bond is finished.”

I should have told him to go to hell.

Instead I lay there beneath him, still shaking from the orgasm he’d forced out of me, his scent filling every breath, and felt the last of my resistance start to crack.

Outside, the storm kept raging.

Inside, the only sound left was the low, satisfied rumble in Kade’s chest as he settled his weight over me like he already owned every inch.